The Social Democratic Party or the SDP, was, until the merger of 1988, a centrist political party (created in 1981) which had never won a general election. It was founded by four senior Labour Party moderates known as the gang of four (Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams).

To represent this new merger, a new party logo was created in 1989, the Bird of Liberty. Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Prime Minister at the time famously laughed at this new logo, but he who laughs last laughs longest.The first leader of the Lib Dem was Paddy Ashown, and at their first election in 1992 they won 17.8% of the vote and twenty seats, and then 46 seats in the 1997. But in the middle of 1990 due to the election of Tony Blair as Labour leader in 1994, and with his “New Labour” movement, the question of the cooperation between the two parties became an important issue, and Ashdown pushed for an alliance. But, most Lib Dems wanted to keep their own identity, thus the party increasingly shifted to the left.

In 1999, Charles Kennedy became the Lib Dem leader, two years before the party’s results improved at the 2001 election (52 seats and 18.3% vote), this rise was partially due to the Lib Dem’s position against the war in Iraq. Nevertheless, it was not just due to this position because at the 2005 general election, the party won again an increasing number of seats; in fact they won their highest share of the vote: 62 seats. In 2006,Charles Kennedy’s popularity declined, partially because of his alcoholism, and a competition for the leadership of the party begun. Just after Menzines Campbell was elected leader of the Lib Dems, the leaderless party won the Dunfermine and West Fife by-elections. It was a blow for Gordon Brown, who lived in the constituency, and was a frontrunner of the next election, in 2010. In 2007 Nick Clegg won the leadership election, and became the party’s fourth leader.

In spite of the good economic results of the coalition, these recent events could have a negative impact on the liberal democrats. In the next legislative election, in 2015, we may see Labour take the upper hand again.